Hancock County approves overtime pay for maintenance staff during courthouse closures

The Hancock County Commission on Feb. 13, 2025 approved a change to the county employee policy manual adding overtime pay for maintenance staff who work when the Hancock County Courthouse is closed. The motion passed 3-0.

Commissioners said the change is intended as an incentive to encourage in-house repairs, allow faster on-site responses during facility outages and reduce costs compared with calling outside contractors.

"It's an incentive that we would like to create to encourage in house repairs if there's a problem with our with our courthouse facilities," Presiding Commissioner, Hancock County Commission, said during discussion. "We have to be able to offer restrooms. And when these things happen, there are reasons that it's good for everybody if the maintenance staff that we keep on the payroll is the 1 to do that."

The presiding commissioner said the policy rewards speedy response and reliability and noted overtime paid to on-call maintenance is usually less costly than emergency contractor calls. Another commissioner added, "It's just, to me, it boils down to how important they are to us in the courthouse and to compensate them properly for their dedication."

The change was listed in the meeting packet as the "employee policy manual change, February 2025" and would apply to maintenance staff called in to perform repairs when the courthouse is closed. The motion on the floor to approve the manual change passed unanimously, 3-0.

The commission did not specify an effective date beyond the packet title nor provide a detailed overtime rate in the public discussion; those details are included in the manual language in the commission packet.